The more you know about your customers the better you can cater to their needs, keep them in your venue and keep them coming back.

It pays to ask…

The simplest way to find out about what your customers like is simply to ask them. People love to talk about what interests them, particularly if it’s sport. And ask your staff to ask too – they may get some unexpected answers. If you have time, you could put together a short sport-orientated questionnaire for your customers.

Know your customers

Give out questionnairesThe sort of information you collect could include:

• their age

• who they watch sport with

• which sports they like to watch, just the big games or the smaller games too

• do they eat before they come, and if not, what they like to eat while they’re watching; do they watch sport in other venues, if so, which ones

• and finally, their contact details so you can either email them or text them to tell them when a game’s coming up.

Turn your research into profitOnce you’ve got all your information, have a good look at it.

If you can, put it into a form that tells you something, like 8 out of 10 fans support Manchester United or over half the people who like rugby like to watch it with their kids, or 7 out of 10 people only want simple dishes like burgers or pizza or other hand-held food when they’re watching a match.

It’s all useful stuff, and like gold-dust when it comes to organising events.

Know the competitionAt the same time as finding out things about your customers, it’s equally important to find out about what the competition are up to.

One of the easiest ways to do this is simply to make it a habit of visiting other venues. Check out how they do things, where they put their screens, how they break their space into different areas, what promotions they offer. And don’t be too proud to copy a few tricks if something’s working for them.

SWOT upTo really get an edge, why not do a comprehensive SWOT analysis where you look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that affect your business and those of your competitors.

• a strength might be having a nice-dark space at the back of the venue to show matches

• a weakness would be small screens or bad acoustics

• an opportunity might be serving a few Brazilian specialities during the World Cup

• a threat might be seeing an eighty inch plasma TV wheeled into the venue opposite.

Visit competitor revenues regularly. Maybe your competitors have clever ways of advertising fixtures you hadn’t thought of, or they’ve got special offers on during the games, or they email their customers when a big game’s coming up.

It’s a great way to get ideas that translate directly to the bottom line.

Go onlineYou’ll also find a wealth of information online. Have a look at the reviews for competitive venues – try the bar’s own website, pub-explorer.com or beerintheevening.com – and you’ll probably come away with a good idea of what works for them and what doesn’t.

Keep up-to-date To make the most of opportunities, it pays to know what’s coming up on BT Sport and the wider sporting world; become the resident expert on sport in your venue. There are many ways to do this:

• to find out about upcoming sports events, visit btsportbusiness.com/fixtures

• for sports events on terrestrial TV, visit itvsport and BBC Sport

• look out for BT Sport offers via email or through the post

• follow BT Sport on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news

• stay up to date with the trade news – subscribe to PMA, SLTN, Club Mirror and inapub newsletters.

Plan your eventNo-one needs to be told that some events and games are bigger than others. For most people a clash between the teams at the top of the Premiership will be a more interesting prospect than a first round FA Cup game.

So it makes sense to plan accordingly. Of course, you know your customers best, so these are just suggestions, but ranking your events in importance is good practice and allows you to make the most of your resources.

Unmissable Events Any big football championship with national interest, like the 2010 World Cup or Euro 2016; big finals; Grand National or Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Premium Events Top pick Barclays Premier League matches; England qualifiers; England Rugby; Olympics; Boat Race; and the London Marathon.

Popular Events Other Barclays Premier League matches; Aviva Premiership clashes between the big teams; England friendlies.

Regular EventsMotoGPTM; WTC Tennis and UFC.

A few ideas Once you know what sort of event you’re having, you can start to plan. For the big events order your advertising, stock and plastic glasses well ahead of time, and check staff rotas to make sure you’ve got the cover you need. For smaller events you could probably get by with a What’s On board to keep customers updated and a couple of posters.

You also might like to consider a few of these ideas:

• for big events, dress the bar with flags, get your staff to wear team colours and line up appropriate music like 3 Lions or Vindaloo to pump up the atmosphere

• develop a specific sports themed menu – pies of course, but how about finger-food like burgers, pizzas, hot-dogs, paninis or wraps

• take a tip from the clubs themselves and create VIP ‘boxes’, special areas where guests get table-service and an uninterrupted view of the match

• put together drinks deals, like 4 pint jugs of beer, buckets of bottles or appropriate foreign beers it’s an International match – Grolsch if the team’s from Holland, Cerveza from Spain, Carlsberg from Germany, or even national wines

• have a sports quiz before or after the game to keep your customers amused, and with you for an extra few hours

• to get customers into the bar before the game, have a ‘guess the time of the first goal competition’, or a raffle that you enter by buying a drink. And hold the draw after the game’s finished

• offer discounted drinks between kick off and the first goal or try.